Explain: don't prepare answers for date fields #101

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jcoffey-dev merged 1 commits from fix/explain-skip-date-fields into main

2026-09-29 01:06:47 +00:00

jcoffey-dev commented

2026-09-29 00:11:41 +00:00

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Found while preparing 2026.9.28.5.

The problem: a release prepares an answer for every setting at its default. For date fields (createdAt on Account, Domain, Tenant, OAuthClient and others, and a certificate's notValidBefore/notValidAfter), the "default" is the moment the object is built. So the question changed every run, about 11 answers were regenerated every release, and no live question ever matched them.
Some of that wording was wrong: one read "That date is in the future … check the server's clock".
The fix: prepared_questions skips a property whose default is an RFC 3339 timestamp. The next release's prepare drops those answers and asks nothing new about them. Live Explain this on a date field works as before and asks the model.

Checked: prepared_questions_are_well_formed now also asserts that x:Account.createdAt isn't prepared. The explanation tests pass.

Found while preparing 2026.9.28.5. - **The problem:** a release prepares an answer for every setting at its default. For date fields (`createdAt` on Account, Domain, Tenant, OAuthClient and others, and a certificate's `notValidBefore`/`notValidAfter`), the "default" is the moment the object is built. So the question changed every run, about 11 answers were regenerated every release, and no live question ever matched them. - **Some of that wording was wrong:** one read *"That date is in the future … check the server's clock"*. - **The fix:** `prepared_questions` skips a property whose default is an RFC 3339 timestamp. The next release's prepare drops those answers and asks nothing new about them. Live *Explain this* on a date field works as before and asks the model. **Checked:** `prepared_questions_are_well_formed` now also asserts that `x:Account.createdAt` isn't prepared. The explanation tests pass.

jcoffey-dev added 1 commit 2026-09-29 00:11:41 +00:00